On Initiative

Throughout my short life, I've had the opportunity to experience some pretty incredible things, and meet some pretty incredible people. Sometimes, people ask me how I've come to meet such interesting people and attend such interesting events, and it really just boils down to one thing: Initiative.

Initiative is a powerful force that drives virtually everything one does. I hate to be one of those people who says, "in the dictionary, blah blah blah" buuuuttt, in the dictionary, initiative is defined as "the power or opportunity to act or take charge before others do." But a word's definition is merely what it is, not necessarily what it means. I'd like to look at what that definition means.

First of all, there's the "power" to act. Wanting something bad enough that you'll take action in order to create for yourself is more than half the battle. It takes ambition. Watch this video if you are unsure about how much you want to be successful. The power to act is the absolute foundation of accomplishing anything--you need to want it and be willing to sacrifice and work hard in order to achieve your goals.

Then, there's the "opportunity" to act. Sometimes, opportunity knocks on your door. Sometimes, it knocks your door down, and sometimes, you wonder if you have a door for opportunity to knock on. Opportunity is a product of work and luck. You need to earn opportunity just like how you earn anything. You need to work hard, think ahead, strategize, have goals, make decisions, and have the strength of will to keep going.

"Take charge". No one is going to be responsible for you or for your ideas or for your successes or for your failures. You have to take charge--this is related to having the power to act. You need to have the power to act, and then you need to have the willingness to act responsibility for whatever happens, that's what taking charge means.

Acting "before others do" is, in my humble opinion, not absolutely necessary. It is interesting to do something no one has done before, but not necessary. Do you think Angry Birds was the first game that did physics based level destruction? Hell no, but perhaps they did it better than anyone else before them. Taking action before others will oftentimes give you a head start, but doing something better than anyone ever has before can be equally rewarding. It's not shameful to be inspired, but it is shameful to steal, so talk about the inspiration for your ideas.

Initiative has driven me to this point in my life...soon to be college graduate, student researcher at NASA, and founding partner in a game company. These aren't my only defining features, but they are the most obvious product of my taking the initiative. If you want to make games, do it. If you want to be a potato farmer, do it. Whatever it is you want to do, do it. The only real mistake you can make is to do nothing.